


Manual Dexterity

by vanillu_script (orphan_account)



Category: Smallfoot (2018)
Genre: Bonding, Communication Failure, Domestic Fluff, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Fluff without Plot, Gen, Human/Monster Society, Light Angst, Nonverbal Communication, Sign Language, this wasnt written as ship but you can certainly interpret it as so if you want lol
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-10-15
Updated: 2018-10-19
Packaged: 2019-08-02 11:36:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,758
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16304456
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/vanillu_script
Summary: Some shorts about closing the communication gap between Humans and Yetis, and how they utilize their newfound ways of communication to properly get to know each other.





	1. Crisscross

When Percy woke up this morning, he wasn’t exactly sure what he expected to become of his day. Shower and throw some makeup on, go out to brunch with Brenda, definitely post brunch pics to Instagram, maybe head back home and sit on the couch with a pint of espresso-chocolate-flavoured Häagen-Dazs. You know, an average day. 

The one thing that hadn’t exactly been in his expectations was enjoying a friendly conversation with a yeti pal.  
The ease into both learning ASL and teaching ASL to Yeti-kind had been a bit difficult - especially as speaking concisely had never been Percy’s strong suit. It did help that some Yeti seemed to pick up on human audio references - some sounds and ‘words’ sticking with them when others didn’t - although humans were still completely unable to make sense of any of the grumbling and growling they often responded with. For example - Percy knew Migo’s name by random happenstance, having passively said the word “amigo” in conversation, followed by fifteen minutes of Migo making him write the word out and crossing out letters until Percy said the one that sounded closest to his name. He could be wrong about his name, for all Percy knew, but if it worked then it worked. He quickly learned how to fingerspell ‘Migo’ and teach his Yeti that it was a word specifically to refer to him, and him only. Migo was pretty damn excited about the concept of it, bragging about it to everyone else until a few others got their own name signs as well.  
As for Migo vaguely understanding Percy’s name, well . . . it was mostly him having Percy repeat his name over and over until he could vaguely isolate sounds he understood. This, combined with Migo’s vague grasp of the English alphabet, helped him figure out how to refer to him when speaking amongst other Yeti - and to learn his name sign.

Percy laughs heartily, his lungs aching with the force of it as he curls in on himself. He takes a breath before grinning, setting his phone down in order to speak. Looking up at Migo, smiling dumbly and trying to sit against the ground outside the cafe comfortably, Percy slides his gloved hands together before gesturing over his own teeth.  
“You have nice teeth!” he signs, his small continuous giggles displaying the joking nature of the statement. Migo blinks for a moment before baring his teeth, as though he had never thought about the fact that he had them.  
“Uhhhh,” Migo mumbles to himself, reaching a finger up to prod at one of his canines curiously. His attention snaps back to Percy when he starts laughing uncontrollably again, and for a moment he feels self-conscious about his teeth.  
The human quickly notices the switch in his expression, clambering up to swipe his hands in front of his face to simply indicate “cross-eyed”.  
Migo smiles again before shifting a bit in order to get his face right against the cold snow, now eye-level with Percy. The human stares at him curiously for a moment before Migo crosses his eyes playfully, the notion much more exaggerated and comical than before. Percy snorts, reaching out a gloved hand to pat at the fur on Migo’s forehead.  
“But really pal,” Percy says aloud, retracting his hand back - the loss causing Migo to watch him curiously. Percy tries to hold back a wonky smile as he points to Migo (an action which makes him go cross-eyed again) before brushing his pointer and middle finger over his own lower lip twice. “You’re cute.” he signs.  
The two laugh, Migo’s giggle slightly intimidating to the human ear - but nonetheless a pleasant gesture once you got used to it. Migo sneaks his hand under his chin and waves a flat palm to and fro a few times - a sarcastic “thanks”.

Percy pauses for a moment, suddenly realizing he’s probably in no place to make fun of anyone’s teeth now that one of his friends has successfully punched one of his molars out.


	2. Emoticons

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Percy gets frustrated over some personal friend issues, and turns to what might be considered literal creature comfort.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this ones a lil hurt/comfort boys,, no beta on this one so ayyy

_“And all these emoticons and words,”_

Percy lazily reaches a hand up to push his hair out of his face, huffing a sigh as he rapidly glances around at the ceiling. His eyes twitch slightly as he attempts to not spill tears, droplets piling up horizontally across his cornea.  
  
_“try to make it better but they only make it worse.”_

Memories of various different people from his life flash before his eyes - old friends, current friends, people he had worked with, family, crappy girlfriends and boyfriends he had had - and amongst it all, he mostly feels grief. How had it all passed so fast?

_“And all these emoticons and words,”_

He had left a lot of things behind when he chose to stay in the Himalayas, things that months ago felt so pressing and in need of closure. After starting again with certain new revelations, it felt as though him just forgetting about those things was enough closure on its own.  
He huffs as he lulls these thoughts over in his head, trying to make sense of his own actions. A thud outside of his home catches his attention, but he refrains from moving.

_“fail to make it better, their attempts just make it worse.”_

His home suddenly vibrates with the force of loud knocking (tapping? bludgeoning?) at his door, and only then does he move to sit up and turn off his music. The house calms for a moment as he presses pause on the track, and he utilizes the free time to wipe the tears from his cheeks - having fallen from his eyes during the position change. He quickly shuffles off the bed to lightly jog his way to the door, taking a moment to fix himself in the mirror on his way there. He haphazardly throws his coat on before unlocking the door and tentatively stepping outside - his loose band shirt and plaid pajama pants doing little for providing warmth.  
Percy’s eyes instinctively shoot upwards and, as expected, land upon Migo - looking down at him with an odd sense of excitement.  
Migo knew he could spend his time getting to know everything or everyone else in the world, but he found it only right to one way or another end up at Percy’s doorstep. Percy was in part responsible for the revelation in Yeti history, and furthermore had helped to ease them into human society. He had done quite a bit for them on his end. And, even then . . . Migo knew Percy used to have a home elsewhere (despite the fact he was on the verge of losing said home). Percy stayed here for, well . . . Migo forces himself to think that Percy stayed for all of Yeti-kind, but there’s a little bit of social logic in the back of his mind that knows he stayed for Migo specifically. since they knew each other best amidst the species gap. Percy knows it too.  
“Good morning!” Migo says, his arm almost smacking the roof as he signs excitedly. Percy flinches, eyeing him awkwardly for a moment before fixing his posture and greeting him likewise. “Do you want to go out on a date?” Migo asks, tapping his fingertips together clumsily. Percy smacks his palm against his forehead tiredly, huffing out a laugh as he leans his weight onto one hip.  
“Wrong sign, Migo!” Percy responds after a moment, his cold hands having some slight difficulty getting Migo’s name out. “But yes, I’d like to hang out.”  
Migo pauses, trying to mull over where he might have gone wrong with his signing, before shrugging it off and turning his attention back to Percy. However, he pauses once more as he looks down to find Percy seeming distant. He eyes him curiously, noting the way he folds his arms and avoids looking at Migo - probably trying to hide his face, almost like one might tuck their crying face into their hands to prevent their dog from seeing. Always a drama queen, Percy was doing a pretty bad job at hiding his mood.  
Migo’s expression falters, glancing off at the cluster of town sitting nearby - a simple five-minute walk of nothing but snow separating them from everyone else. Turning back, he spreads his palm out near Percy’s feet, gesturing for the man to step forward unto it.  
Percy shifts his weight awkwardly for a moment, glancing rapidly between the yeti’s hand and face. He huffs passively before stepping forward, not exactly understanding what was going on. He stumbles backwards for a moment, quickly falling back against Migo’s hand as they move - seemingly not too far, just a few feet beside the house. Migo gently lays back against a clear, untouched patch of snow, bringing Percy up to sit upon his chest.  
Percy fidgets for a moment, somewhat confused, almost like a toddler that had just gone through a crying fit and was now fresh-minded. He carefully sits up, hoping his knees don’t dig into Migo’s chest too much, reaching his arms out so that he can sign clearly.  
“What’s this?” He asks, almost falling over onto Migo’s face.  
“You seem sad.” Migo responds, likewise trying not to knock Percy onto the snow as he moves around.

Percy stops, his hands locking up mid-air before swiftly dropping to his sides. He groans, smoothing a hand over his own cold-blushed cheek before turning around and flopping back onto the mass of soft white fur.  
“Yeah. I am.” He says towards the sky, tangling his hands into his mess of a mullet. “I’m really lonely, and sometimes it seems like you’re the only person who isn’t around me just for my acting value. Or money I owe.” He groans out the words, anxiously tossing his head back against Migo’s chest. Despite not understanding a word he says, Migo listens. Migo was good like that, amongst many other people in Percy’s life that understood what he said but simply never bothered.  
His breath catches a few times, at first something he passes off as an effect of the low temperature, before he eventually hiccups alongside a fresh, steady flow of tears. Migo perks up, reaching a hand up to carefully catch Percy as he sits up, still keeping him nestled against his fur. He tentatively pats his pointer finger along the smallfoot’s hair as the small thing hics and sniffles.  
“It’s okay little buddy,” Migo says in a hushed tone - although to Percy it comes off simply as a muted roar. “You’re gonna be okay.”

Despite not understanding him, Percy guesses his words perfectly. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Written with "Emoticons" by The Wombats in mind.  
> I had a weird day and wanted to write this ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯

**Author's Note:**

> More character interactions at some point because I would die for brenda and meechee getting into heavy sign conversations!!!!  
> and in other news bls share ur headcanons abt yetis getting into human pop culture lol


End file.
